Donation Of 5-acre Outer Island Brings Education, Preservation

BRANFORD — State and federal officials have celebrated the donation of Outer Island, a 5-acre Thimble Island, to the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.

The 700-acre McKinney refuge was established in 1994 to protect herons, egrets, terns and other shore and wading birds, said Paul Casey, a refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Outer Island was donated to the fish and wildlife service by Elizabeth Hird in memory of her husband, Basil Rauch.lt is "a special place" for the conservation of wildlife, Casey said.

Acquisition of the island will help the fish and wildlife service protect the habitat of endangered bird and plant species and also will help provide opportunities for scientific research and environmental education. he said.

The four campuses of Connecticut State University will work with the service create a diverse program of instruction and research, said William Cibes, president of the Connecticut State University system, in an address to about 80 people who ferried about 1 mile to the island Saturday.

The island will be used by the system's art students as well as science students, and by public school students from elementary and secondary schools, said Cibes.

The island will also be used for concerts and other cultural events, he said.

A $250,000 grant from the state's Long Island Sound license plate fund has been given to the partnership formed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state university system, said Nicole Morganthaler, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman.

That money must be matched by private donations, and the fund will be used for administration of the island's facilities programs Morganthaler said.

People have been living on the island, the southernmost island in the Thimble Islands chain, since the turn of the century, said Hird. But Hird said that when she and her husband first saw the island in 1964, "it was definitely love at first sight."

The island has been used by state universities since the 1970s. The cooperative arrangement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state university system will ensure that the island will continue to be used for a variety of good purposes, she said.

Faculty and students from the university system have built and positioned a research buoy off the island, said Thomas A. Porter, the system's provost.

The buoy monitors metereological condUtions as well as water temperature at a variety of depths, levels of dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH and other chemical conditions, Porter said. The island will be used for other Long Island Sound research projects.

Historically, Outer Island not only provided habitat for least and common terns but also provided habitat for the endangered roseate terns, said Casey. The fish and ildlife service is considering trying to restore a roseate tern population to the island.